Who says RSS is dead ?

I tended to think so and I have been an avid user of Google Reader, which diligently delivers a new stuff to read every day.

But after some time I discovered one negative side of feed reading - namely, it fosters the attachment to always check whether there is something new to read. For example, I go through all my feeds, and then one hour later I again would check whether there is something new. Of course, everything can become an addiction when one does it too much, but in case of RSS, it seems to me that it is something innate in this technology. Simply, the way it works it might create a feeling of "obligation" to clear all unread feeds.

Currently, I am working on developing another system, which would deliver interesting stuff to me more efficiently and my ultimate goal is to get rid of feed reader. For same websites I read daily like HN, I am now using old-fashioned bookmarks.

Then, there are some other areas I want to follow, for example, "minimalism". Now, instead of subscribing myself to 10 feeds about minimalism and check them several times per day, I am now using twitter search and services like Tweetmeme. The rationale behind this is, that if someone writes something worth reading, it will almost sure be retweeted. At least in my case, I think the future is to use some service built on twitter to find what is being tweeted, without being psychologically shackled by "subscriptions".

RSS is not very 'sexy', but then again neither is a transistor.